Smucker is a principle-based company with a long history of doing the right thing and doing great things right.

ORRVILLE, Ohio -- As a 115-year food manufacturer run by fourth- and fifth-generation family members, the J.M. Smucker Co. said it is especially committed to becoming a more environmentally conscious, socially responsible company.

View full sizeJ.M. Smucker's fruit spreads factory in Orrville is LEED certified by the U.S. Green Building CouncilJ.M. Smucker

As such, it devoted the majority of its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday to telling investors and analysts about its companywide efforts to make positive, long-term improvements in its business.

That includes goals such as generating less waste for landfills, conserving or reusing water, reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, making its palm oil supply chain more sustainable, and helping the farming families who grow its coffee beans.

"Corporate responsibility is doing what is right so we can make the world a better place now and for generations to come," Chief Executive Richard Smucker told shareholders on Wednesday. He said it goes beyond protecting the environment, and encompasses widespread social, economic and cultural changes at its 22 plants across the U.S., Canada, China and Mexico.

View full sizePaul Smucker Wagstaff, president of U.S. retail consumer foodsJ.M. Smucker

He quoted Jerome M. Smucker, company founder and his great-grandfather: "We must take a stand for higher ideals if our life is to have counted for anything."

Paul Smucker Wagstaff, president of the company's U.S. retail consumer foods business and a great-great-grandson of J.M. Smucker, said: "Smucker is a principle-based company with a long history of doing the right thing and doing great things right."

In 2006, the company's Sustainability Task Force drew up three environmental goals it hoped to achieve within five years, including: Diverting 75 percent of its waste away from landfills; reducing its water usage by 25 percent; and curbing its greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent.

By 2009, the company had exceeded those goals. It had diverted 87 percent of the waste at its manufacturing plants through greater efficiency, from using recyclable containers in its cafeterias to building environmentally friendly LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

At its Cincinnati facilities where it makes Crisco, it diverted 45 million pounds of waste from landfills. That plant also saves 100 million gallons of water a year, enough for more than 600 homes a year.

A Santa Cruz production facility saves the amount of energy equivalent to taking 300 cars off the road for a year, and a Suffolk, Virginia, plant that generates steam from burning used coffee grounds saves more than 133 million cubic feet of natural gas.

Keeping 45 million pounds of waste out of landfills has saved the company more than $4 million a year and generated $275,000 in annual recycling revenues.

Smucker is still working to reduce its water usage and greenhouse gases, but has posted progress toward those goals at each of its facilities. In addition, about 85 percent of Smucker's products are packaged in materials that can be recycled.

By 2020, the company hopes to keep 95 percent of its wastes out of landfills, reduce its water usage by another 15 percent, and curb its greenhouse gas emissions by another 10 percent.

Mark Smucker, president of the company's U.S. retail coffee business, said that because coffee generates 46 percent of net sales and more than half of profits, the company is focused on ensuring a long-term, stable and sustainable coffee supply. Especially because the global coffee supply chain is both "highly complex and fragmented."

Besides requiring suppliers to comply with human rights, environmental, and safety requirements, and making site visits to coffee-producing countries, Smucker is committed having 10 percent of its coffee certified by third parties like UTZ, which oversees farming practices.

The company is also working with the Hanns R. Neumann Foundation in southern Sumatra, Indonesia, the world's fourth-largest coffee-producing country, to increase yields by 50 percent and eventually help up to 5,000 farmers. Smucker has also joined the World Coffee Research organization to fight leaf rust, a disease that can devastate coffee trees in Central America.

It also hopes to create an entirely sustainable (and reliable) source of palm oil by December 2015.

Steven Oakland, president of the company's international, foodservice and natural foods business, said Smucker is pleased with the manufacturing of and response to its Seamild oatmeal products in China, and expects to expand its operations there in coming years. "Our focus is to stay with Seamild," he said.

The company said it is expanding its focus on Hispanic consumers beyond Café Bustelo and Café Pilon, and reaching out to Millennials and value-oriented consumers. It is also putting greater emphasis on its digital, e-commerce and social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube.

Smucker is scheduled to report its first-quarter earnings for fiscal 2015 on Wednesday, Aug. 20.

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